The most amazing feature of the building is a 32-foot-diameter stained glass dome. This was made somewhere in Europe (exact records have been lost), but came to this location when the oil man from Texas who had ordered it was unable to complete the purchase when he went bust. The pieces were already in New Orleans, and the company let the church buy it for the outstanding balance of $1500. This was a big enough sum in 1913 that the church had to think about it. Of course its current value is just a "bit" more than that!
The church had planned a plaster dome and designed and built the rest of the church. It was considered almost miraculous that this suddenly available piece of art was the exact size to fit the existing hole.
It shows angels delivering the message of Peace and Good Will to Humankind.
Here is the sanctuary, and you can see the dome in the ceiling.
Other stained glass windows tell Bible stories. Jesus knocking at the door (of your heart).
Jesus the Good Shepherd.
And a rather unusual one- Jesus with Mary and Martha. Notice there is a dog curled at his feet. I don't think I've ever seen this story rendered in stained glass before.
These are exceptionally high quality glass images.
There are also 22 needlepoint kneeling cushions, made by 25 women in 1989. Each shows two angels holding some symbol of the church or the Gulf Coast. The angels tie in with the theme of the angels in the dome. This cushion shows the angels with a shell.
As I think is typical of Methodist churches, they have a number of service projects. One is "Home Under the Dome," designed to help enrich the lives of adults with memory loss through fellowship and engaging activities while also providing support for caregivers.
BONUS SECTION: Finding myself
We went out to lunch, and on the way passed a souvenir store called Sharkheads. What fun!
This was at the other end. The last "shark store" I found is linked below.
We saw all this on the way home from eating out. Then I went for a walk and found this. I don't think I've ever seen a Joan Street before.
We went out to lunch and saw several other interesting things, but this is enough for today. I'll share tomorrow.
Walking city streets- 6.2 miles
 | See Coastal
See Shark's Ice Cream |
5 comments:
Love the stained glass windows, I grew up in methodist church which had stained glass. Sadly it's closed and merged into another. I was 4th generation and my kids 5th.
That dome is pretty impressive. Nice history behind it as well.
That store is perfect and how cool that there is a Joan St. It's almost as if the area is calling for you.
Lulu: "That must be a different Dome from the one Stephen King wrote about ..."
Charlee: "Shark! Shark! Shark!"
Chaplin: "Your very own street! How cool is that? I wonder if there's a Chaplin street somewhere."
The stained glass is beautiful, especially the dome. Is it unusual for Methodist churches to have kneelers? I thought that they are found only Catholic churchs.
Doug- so sad when the beautiful old churches are gone
Ann- I do run into sharks from time to time, but this was the first Joan St!
Chaplin- I'm sure you must have a street
Ellie- the kneelers are not in the pews, but in the front beside a railing around the dais.
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